Leadership passed on to Iraqi troops
Baghdad, Iraq -- The first junior-leadership skills development course for Iraqi National Guard Soldiers graduated on Jan. 15 at Forward Operating Base Independence in western Baghdad.
The class of ING platoon leaders, platoon sergeants and squad leaders from the 302nd Iraqi National Guard Battalion was planned and run by U.S. Army Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
"The official title for the course is Team Leader Course," said Master Sgt. Steve Overby, lead trainer for the course, of Headquarters Company, 1-9 Cavalry. "We covered primary leadership development-type [skills] in the class. Basically, what we teach our Soldiers, but tailored to the Iraqi Army's standards.
"We omitted things that don't apply to them, like how to counseling Soldiers," the Livermore, Calif. native added.
The course lasted a total of five days, starting on Jan. 9 when the Cavalry troopers administered an Army Physical Fitness Test to the Iraqi Soldiers, and ending with a graduation ceremony held the morning of Jan. 15 at the ING compound on FOB Independence.
"After we administered the [fitness test]," Overby said, "we spent the rest of the day discussing leadership responsibilities."
The following day, the ING troops were put through an obstacle course, crawling under wire, climbing rope and jumping over walls.
"We made them do it as a team, of course, which builds confidence in their ability to work together," Overby said.
After being given a first aid class later that afternoon, the students went through a simulated training exercise.
"The last thing they did on the second day was go through an STX where basically they had to move from point A to point B, take simulated contact and return fire, treat a simulated casualty and get them medevaced," he said. "This forced them to put to use everything they had learned up to this point."
After spending the third day at a firing range, the Iraqi Soldiers had to endure battle-focused physical training on the fourth day, in which they were required to move as a team around a 1-mile track on the FOB, and pick things up along the way like ammunition, medical supplies and a mock-wounded person on a stretcher, all while being timed.
"Again, the whole concept with this training was to put them in a stressful situation, tire them out and force the leaders to step up and keep everyone else motivated, as well as come up with on-the-spot solutions to the problems they encountered along the way," he said.
On the final day, the students were given a simulated operation order to complete a mission.
"The students themselves then had to turn around, plan the mission and execute it using everything they've learned up to this point," Overby said.
According to Overby, the aspect of training that he and the rest of his training cadre emphasized the most during the team leader course were mission rehearsals.
"They don't usually do rehearsals, but we made them do it during the course, and when they actually executed the missions we gave them, they did outstanding," he said. "I was very impressed. By the end of the course, they finally realized how important it is to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
According to Overby, this course was the first of its kind taught to the 302nd ING Battalion, but the guidelines for it had been taken directly from a course he and the training cadre had given three times to the Soldiers of 1-9 Cavalry over the course of the deployment.
"We originally designed this for our junior leaders." he said. "We decided it would be a good idea to teach the Iraqi Army, so that they could turn around and teach this stuff to the rest of their guys."
The next team leader course will be held in February and, according to Command Sgt. Maj. Donald Felt, 1-9 Cavalry's senior non-commissioned officer, the ultimate intent of teaching the course is to train the Iraqi Soldiers to be able to train their own troops.
"Six of the Iraqi Soldiers that did really well in this class also happen to speak English very well and will come back to teach the second class with us," he said. "Then the third class will be entirely Iraqi taught."
Tasks such as those taught in this course will likely prove essential when the Iraqi Army assumes full responsibility for patrolling 1-9 Cavalry's area of responsibility which includes the Baghdad's infamous "Haifa Street."
"Our patrols go out there. Your patrols go out there," Lt. Col. Thomas MacDonald, commander of Task Force 1-9 Cavalry, told the Iraqi Soldiers at their graduation ceremony. Everywhere [the insurgents] see our uniforms, and your uniforms. And they're scared." (By Spc. Erik LeDrew, 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
Release #050120n
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